Friday, March 29, 2024

Lagos LP leaders, candidates debunk claims by sacked spokesman, Arabambi

  •  Allege destabilization plans, reaffirm confidence in Abure’s leadership

The Lagos State chapter of the Labour Party has debunked claims and allegations by the erstwhile national publicity secretary of the party, Abayomi Arabambi against the national chairman, Julius Abure. The party argued that Arabambi’s activities were all tailored towards ensuring that the Labour Party failed in the South West in general and Lagos State in particular. It also restated its confidence in the leadership of the national chairman.

In a statement by its Secretary, Sam Okpala, on Wednesday, the Lagos State LP said Arabambi’s appearance on a national television, wherein he cast aspersion on the leadership of the party and all his claims were false.

The party stated that “The former national publicity secretary, Arabambi Abayomi, being from the Southwest, was initially charged by the party’s national secretariat of Labour Party, led by the national chairman, Julius Abure, to ensure that the party’s candidates for Senate and House of Representatives positions were listed in the INEC portal for the forthcoming general elections in 2023.”

The party argued that it gave him the assignment so that he could prove those who were alleging his involvement in hanky-panky dealings with extraneous powers to sabotage the efforts of the Labour Party in the southwest zone wrong.

The party accused him of handling the legal matter involving it so poorly that the national body had to intervene to save the candidates of the party from predictable disaster. “The matter in the High Court was so poorly managed and handled by Arabambi and his compromised team, which resulted in the matter being dismissed by the Federal High Court and this development was willfully hidden from the party leadership by Arabambi and his team for reasons only known by them. This poor performance was after Arabambi had collected millions of naira from the party in Lagos State into his personal bank accounts purportedly for “legal fees” and other ancillary expenses in respect of the matter.

“To add salt to injury, Arabambi refused to hand over the matter and the case file to the party’s trusted legal team when the demand was made of him by the national leadership of the party since Arabambi and this team did not make any effort to file an appeal against the judgement of the lower court in any appeal court of the land even as he was aware that the window for doing same was elapsing with obvious implications for the party and her candidates. Anybody could hazard a guess here as to why a self-acclaimed “committed” labour party man will exhibit such behaviour if not only to satisfy his paymasters at the detriment of the party.

“As a result of the above, the party had no other option than to defy Abayomi Arabambi and his team and went further to secure the services of another legal firm, which to the Glory of God took up the matter and filed an appeal in the court of appeal sitting in Abuja on behalf of Labour Party and subsequently, this new legal team took up the matter of the appeal and got judgement in favour of Labour Party on the 18th of November 2022 for us to send our list of candidates for national assembly elections to INEC for official listing.

“Labour Party Lagos state chapter and its 2023 candidates hereby wish to state that the court of appeal judgement given in favour of labour party by the court of appeal sitting in Abuja was given by a court of competent jurisdiction via an appeal filed by duly nominated legal representatives of the party in legal court processes devoid of any infraction or forgery as claimed by the embattled former national publicity Secretary, Arabambi Abayomi.”

While absolving the national chairman of any blame, the Lagos State chapter restated its confidence in his leadership. Itstated that “Labour Party in Lagos State hereby wishes to use this medium to re-affirm our unwavering vote of confidence on the national chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure and his team in the national working committee, while restating that we have implicit trust in the ability and the leadership of Abure and his team to lead the party to victory come 2023.”

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